From the Physio | Luigi Cerullo offers an update on First Team injuries

27 October 2017

We sat down with First Team Physio Luigi Cerullo to get an update on the players we currently have out injured.

Curtis Weston, John Akinde, Jamie Stephens, Richard Brindley, Elliott Johnson and Dave Tarpey are all currently out with various injuries and Luigi updated us on all their conditions.

Luigi started off by giving us a brief update on all the players currently on the sidelines.

“Both Curtis Weston and John Akinde are with sports science, so they’re progressing through their strengthening and rehabilitation. It’s all going as expected and they’re currently where they need to be.

“Jamie Stephens is outside with the goalkeeping coach as well as doing his rehabilitation in the gym. He’s working through it and making steady progress every day.

“Richard Brindley is getting closer to a return.

“Elliott Johnson and Dave Tarpey have both had successful surgeries, they’re both back in at the training ground with the squad. They are both receiving treatments in physio room and gradually progressing through their respective individualised rehabilitation programmes.”

The number of injuries the club have had since the start of the season was unexpected, something even the backroom staff didn’t anticipate.

“We’ve been hit with a massive amount of unfortunate injuries, something I’ve never had to work within my career at this stage of the season. The injuries have been sustained by first team players, and made them unavailable for selection. The backroom staff in the Medical and Sport Science department are working endlessly to rehabilitate these players back to full fitness.

“We sit down daily to review treatments and rehabilitation plans to make sure the players are getting back out there as soon as possible.

The types of injuries the players have picked up have been unfortunate as well, with many of them unpreventable. However, muscular injuries can be prevented, something Luigi’s team have been working on.

“We’ve had minimal muscular injuries, only Akinde and Coulthirst have had these problems so far. We do our best to prevent them to a certain extent with daily monitoring.

“John’s injury involved an extrinsic factor, so there wasn’t much we could do about that. The other injuries are just unfortunate, ACL’s have very little preventative measures and luck has been a key factor.”